Devil's Food Minis with Buttercream and Cream Cheese Frosting

A friend of my mother had a party last night, and I was asked to bring some cupcakes. Since Stephanie and I just made those cheesecake cupcakes, we weren't in the mood to measuring and sifting flour, soften butter, search for baking powder/soda, etc... I just got Cupcakes From The Cake Mix Doctor, so I found a recipe in her book for Devil's Food cupcakes (I used the cupcake recipe from Halloween Spider cupcakes).

ingredients (had to go to two stores to find that buttermilk)
Simply dump all ingredients into one bowl!
scooping batter into those tiny cups68 (yep 68!!) minis coolingcream cheese frosting on some and light green buttercream on othersWe played around with chocolate transfers for the first time.49 minis ready to party!

I got rave reviews about these cupcakes, mostly about the frosting (which was nice because that was the only part I really made from scratch).

MY NOTES: In the front of Cupcakes From The Cake Mix Doctor it says 1 recipe yeilds about 36 mini cupcakes, so I was fully prepared to make a double batch... but one batch made 68 MINIS!!! The cream cheese frosting was made with the "add & taste" method, so there is no recipe. I couldn't find Dutch process cocoa powder, so I used Hershey's unsweetened.

Whipped buttercream frosting recipe from Bake & Destroy.

Devil's food cupcakes from "Halloween Spider Cupcakes" recipe:

1 package (18.25 ounces) devil's food cake mix
2 tablespoons Dutch process cocoa powder
1 1/3 cups buttermilk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350'F. Line muffin pan with paper liners.

Place all ingredients into a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds. Scrape down sides of bowl with spatula. Blend on medium speed for 2 minutes. Fill the cupcake cups 2/3 to 3/4 full.

Bake cupcakes 16 to 20 minutes (for regular size cupcakes) or until they spring back when lightly pressed. Remove cupcakes from oven and cool in pan for 5 minutes. Remove cupcakes from pan and place on wire rack until completely cool.

Chocolate transfers:

The chocolate transfers were made with about 1 cup of Wilton light cocoa candy melts. In a microwave safe bowl melt them in the microwave, stirring often, until completely smooth. Spoon melted chocolate into a piping bag with a small round tip (I used Wilton Round 3), or a ziplock bag with a tiny hole poked in one corner. Pipe small designs onto a piece of parchment paper. Let them harden (a few minutes in the refrigerator should do it). When they are dry, they should easily lift right off the parchment paper.